SOURCE.
Abdelazer; or, the Moor’s Revenge is an alteration of the robustious _Lust’s Dominion; or, the Lascivious Queen, printed 12mo, 1657, and then attributed to Marlowe, who was certainly not the author. It is now generally identified with The Spanish Moor’s Tragedy by Dekker (Haughton and Day, 1600), although, as Fleay justly says, there is ‘an under-current of pre-Shakespearean work’ unlike either Dekker or Day. There are marked crudities of form and a rough conduct of plot which stamp it as of very early origin. Probably it was emended and pruned by the three collaborators.
Although often keeping close to her original, Mrs. Behn has dealt with the somewhat rude material in a very apt and masterly way: she has, to advantage, omitted the old King, Emanuel, King of Portugal, Alvero, father to Maria (Florella), and the two farcical friars, Crab and Cole; she adds Elvira, and whereas in Lust’s Dominion the Queen at the conclusion is left alive, declaiming:—
‘I’ll fly unto some solitary residence
When I’ll spin out the remnant of my life
In true contrition for my past offences.’—
Mrs. Behn far more dramatically kills her Isabella. Perhaps the famous assassination of Henri III of France by the Dominican, Jacques Clement, gave a hint for Roderigo masqued as a monk.
The sexual passion, the predominance of which in this tragedy a recent critic has not a little carpingly condemned, is entirely natural in such an untamed savage as Abdelazer, whilst history affords many a parallel to the lascivious Queen.
THEATRICAL HISTORY.
Abdelazer; or, The Moor’s Revenge was first produced at the Duke’s Theatre in Dorset Garden during the late autumn of 1677. It was supported by a strong cast, and Betterton, whose Othello, Steele—writing exquisitely in the Tatler—seems to have considered artistically quite perfect, was no doubt n wonderful representative of the ferocious Afric. The effective rôle of Queen Isabella fell to Mrs. Mary Lee, the first tragedienne of the day, Mrs. Marshall, the leading lady of the King’s Company, having at this time just retired from the stage. [Footnote: Her last rôle was Berenice in Crowne’s heroic tragedy, The Destruction of Jerusalem (1677).] It is interesting to notice that Mrs. Barry on her way to fame played the secondary part of Leonora.
Abdelazer seems to have met with good success, and on Easter Monday, April, 1695, the patentees, after the secession of Betterton, Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Bracegirdle and their following to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, chose the tragedy to reopen Drury Lane. The Moor was played by George Powell, a vigorous and passionate actor, who also spoke a new prologue written for the nonce by Cibber, then a mere struggler in the ranks. Colley’s verses were accepted at the eleventh hour in default of better, and he tells us how chagrined he was not to be allowed to deliver them in person. The house was very full the first day, but on the morrow it was empty, probably owing to the inexperience of many of the actors and a too hasty rehearsing of the play.
On the stage Abdelazer was superseded by Edward Young’s The Revenge, a tragedy largely borrowed in theme and design from Mrs. Behn, with reminiscences of Othello. Produced at Drury Lane, 18 April, 1721, with Mills, Booth, Wilks, Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Horton in the cast, it attained considerable success, and Zanga, the Moor, was long a favourite part with our greatest actors even down to the days of Kean, who excelled in it, and Macready. The Revenge is not without merit, and it stands out well before the lean and arid tragedies of its time, but this, unfortunately, is not much to say. It is not for a moment to be compared with the magnificent tapestry of Abdelazer, woven though the latter may be in colours strong and daring.